In some networked environments, shared computing resources are provided to computing systems or other devices connected to the network on demand by way of deploying one or more virtual machines (VMs). A VM, generally, runs as a software application and provides services that support a platform-independent programming environment which abstracts away details of the underlying hardware or operating system for the party requesting the respective services.
VMs are typically provided by a management layer that is part of the networked computing architecture. Typically, the management layer downloads VM images from a remote repository to a local storage medium that is shared with the virtualization platform. The management layer then deploys the VM by executing the image stored at the locally shared storage medium. Once a VM is deployed, operational resources are allocated to the VM. If a VM is no longer needed, the operational resources are deallocated (i.e., the VM is decommissioned) to allow the resources to be reallocated to other VMs.